Lithuania

Lithuania regularly reports hate crime data to ODIHR. Data are collected by the Police Department under the Ministry of the Interior and the Prosecutor General's Office. Lithuania's annual hate crime report is published here.

Lithuania began implementing ODIHR's Training Against Hate Crime for Law Enforcement (TAHCLE) programme in 2015 and continues to train police officers using ODIHR's training curriculum. In 2018, Lithuania co-organized a workshop on hate crime recording and data collection with ODIHR and the EU Fundamental Rights Agency. The workshop was based on ODIHR's Information Against Hate Crimes Toolkit (INFAHCT) and resulted in a set of recommendations for relevant state authorities.
In 2020, a working group to promote an effective response to hate crime and hate speech in Lithuania was established by order of the Minister of the Interior. The working group consists of representatives of eight national public authorities (the Ministry of the Interior, the Prosecutor General's Office, the Police Department, the Department of National Minorities, the Office of the Inspector of Journalist Ethics, the Office of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson, the Parliamentary Ombudspersons Office and the Ministry of Social Security and Labour), victim support services, the Kaunas University of Technology, and ten civil society organizations (CSOs). The working group is responsible for developing effective measures to address hate crime and hate speech, monitoring the implementation of international commitments, and reviewing relevant legislation, among other duties.
In 2023, the Action Plan for the Implementation of Equal Opportunities, 2024-2026, was approved, and includes measures to prevent hate speech and hate crimes. Amendments were also made to recommendations for the pre-trial investigation of hate crime and hate speech, drafted with support from ODIHR, to include a definition of hate crime and bias indicators.